There are reasons for cutting off feet. Yes, not wanting to bother with ground shadows is one. Placing them on the ground if it exists is easy. CTRL-D drops the figure. But as you mention, sometimes a background image is used and it might not have a good ground. Other times, it might be a lack of shoes to match the outfit. Or it might be a way to increase the size of the main focus of the figure without enlarging the image. Because, let's face it most people don't focus on feet.

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